The Fourth Week of August, 2022

The fourth week of August was an interesting one for me, both from a garden observations point of view and because of one particularly rewarding visit. So here we go!

Monday, 22nd August                           Garden

I have seen very few Hummingbird Hawkmoths in my life until this year - maybe seven or eight, with probably half of them being in our garden. However, 2022 has been an utterly amazing year in UK, especially in the south of England, for these immigrants from southern Europe and north Africa, and this year we have had a few sightings of this species in our garden, although they usually disappear again before I can get out there with my camera.

They are particularly attracted to the flowers of Red Valerian and, for this reason only, I planted a row of this along a south-facing garden wall. However, on this day, one hung around one of the buddleias for a short while. Sadly it was in shade so I was not able to get a quick enough shutter speed to freeze the whirring wings.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum) - garden on 22nd August, 2022

Friday, 26th August                    Garden ; Saltersford Valley Country Park

This year has also been agood year for Brimstone butterfly, with several sightings in the garden. Fortunately, they are easier to photograph than the Hummingbird Hawkmoths!

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) (female) - garden on 26th August, 2022

That afternoon, I took a short trip to the local Saltersford Valley Country Park.

As I got out of my car in the car park, I felt obliged to take yet another shot of a Speckled Wood butterfly as one settled on the fence, just behind my car.

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) - Saltersford Valley CP

From the boardwalk at the eastern edge of the first lake, I got shots of Ruddy Darter and Migrant Hawker.

Ruddy Darter (Sympetrun sanguineum) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) - Saltersford Valley CP

A wander round to the second lake produced nothing of interest but, as I got back to the last stockaded platform on the first lake I noticed a pair of damselflies fly in and land. To my surprise, these turned out to be a pair of copulating Willow Emerald Damselfies. This was only the third location I had seen this species in in our county (VC55 - Leicestershire and Rutland) and my second locally. This species was first recorded in the county in 2018, so they are spreading well.

 

Willow Emerald (Chalcolestes viridis) (male + female) - Saltersford Valley CP

A return to the boardwalk before my departure had me seeing a rather more obliging Migrant Hawker.

 

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) - Saltersford Valley CP

Saturday, 27th August                    Thortit Lake ; Garden

 

I made a morning return to Thortit Lake this day. There seemed to be many dog walkers around, which I always find disappointing. Is it just me, or do others of you find yourselves more likely to talk to the dogs than their owners? 

This visit turned out to be extremely productive. I arrived to the sound of  two Buzzards circling on the thermals in the far distance - this is a very heavily cropped image of one of them, taken with the lens at 500mm.

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) - from Thortit Lake

I didn't see much else of interest until I arrived at the place where I was lucky enough to have a Brown Hawker dragonfly fly in and perch near me twenty days earlier. At first I spent time photographing the butterflies here. There was the same mix of Common Blue, Brown Argus, and Small Copper as on my previous two visits, but I can't resist these delightful little butterflies.

 

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) (male) - Thortit Lake

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis) - Thortit Lake

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) - Thortit Lake

A female Common Darter offered herself up for photography, obligingly settling on a short stem, rather than on the ground.

 

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (female) - Thortit Lake

I'd seen two Brown Hawkers flying around in the area. As mentioned in a recent post, these are not the easiest of dragonflies to photograph, with their unpredictable flight pattern and rarely settling but, as mentioned above, I had seen one settled less than three weeks earlier. I was, therefore, amazed when one checked me out, and landed possibly only about 5 metres from the spot that the earlier one had landed. Unfortunately, I did not have long with this individual as a couple arrived with a dog, actually disturbing me rather than the dragonfly! My first thought was that it might have been the same specimen, but the first one had a little damage to the left forewing, which the second one does not have.

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) (male) - Thortit Lake

It was time to go home and get some lunch but, wanting to get a bit more exercise in, I decided to head the long way back to my car by heading round the heavily wooded south side of the lake. This decision gave me the most exciting sighting of the morning. A damselfly flew ahead of me and landed beside the path. It was a Willow Emerald Damselfly. This was not a new site for me as I found one on the north side of the lake last year (my first local sighting and only my second site for this species in our county at that time. However, two sightings of this species on different sites on consecutive days was highly encouraging. I'd now see more Willow Emerald damselflies for the year than I had Emerald Damselflies! I didn't have long with this one as a lady with a dog was kindly waiting for me to finish before attempting to pass me, so I kept it brief and stepped back out of her way. It flew and was lost as she passed. I'm rather pleased with the results, however, given that light levels were low in this wooded section.

 

Willow Emerald (Chalcolestes viridis) (female) - Thortit Lake

I went home an exceedingly happy man!

 

I am fully aware that I have posted many photos of Speckled Wood butterflies recently, and there is even one ealier in this post. However, we don't often see them in our garden as we do not have anything approximating to woodland nearby. This one did grace us with a visit on this day.

 

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) -garden on 27th August, 2022

Sunday, 28th August                    Moira Furnace ; Garden

Lindsay occasionally takes a short walk at Moira Furnace as it is somewhere where there are plenty of seats along the pathways so that she can take a frequent rest. She has, on several occasions spoken of the dragonflies she sees, so I went for a morning visit there.

I did see a few dragonflies but, other than one, they were all flying and very distant. I visited the 'butterfly mound' that had been specially constructed a few years ago, and found it almost totally devoid of flowers, presumably because of the drought, and totally devoid of butterflies.

A longish walk was sadly lacking in wildlife until, at one spot, I found three Comma butterflies in one small area. I suspect that these were newly emerged as I can't recall seeing Commas other than singly, and they looked rather fresh.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) - Moira Furnace

A little further on, I did find a Common Darter near the path. I had to tread carefully as it seems that people that visit this place feel that, as long as their dog doesn't foul on the path, but goes off to the side to do its business, it's OK not to pick it up.

 

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (female) - Moira Furnace

It was time to go and having not photographed much in the way of wildlife I went for a shot of a teazel - one of Nature's perfections of architecture.

 

Teazel (Dipsacus sp.) - Moira Furnace

That afternoon during lunch, I noticed a Hummingbird Hawkmoth visiting the Red Valerian, and in sunshine. This time I managed some better shots, although not perfect.

 

Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum) - garden on 28th August, 2022

I am particularly pleased with that last shot. How does it manage to direct its proboscis so quickly and accurately into such a narrow funnel in those flowers?

 

 

This brings me to the end of the fourth week in August, but the month was not yet over. All things being equal, my next post will cover the last two days of the month and will be a bit more 'birdy' than my recent posts. It will also be quite long!

 

In the meantime, take good care of yourselves and Nature. Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard